Laura Murray (Tim Cowie photo)

Aleksandravicius makes all-conference 1st team

Davidson College Sports Information
Just a day after garnering SoCon Freshman of the Year honors in a vote of media, Davidson College guard Laura Murray made it a clean sweep Tuesday by earning the league’s top freshman honor as voted on by the league’s coaches. Teammate Sophia Aleksandravicius was named to the coaches’ first team, after being a first-team member on the media’s squad a day earlier.

The coaches gave the league’s player of the year honor to Appalachian State’s Sam Ramirez, while Anna Freeman was awarded the SoCon Defensive Player of the Year. Head coach Darcie Vincent was honored by her peers as the league’s Coach of the Year after earning the same honor by the media. Chattanooga’s Bailey Dewart earned the final individual award as she was given the Ann Lashley Inspiration Award.

Murray joins Katie Hamilton (2004-05) as the only two Wildcats in program history to be named freshman of the year by the coaches. The freshman was also named to the SoCon All-Freshman Team, the second year in a row a Wildcat has earned one of the five spots on the team. Five different Cats have earned all-freshman honors during the program’s 18 years in the SoCon.

Sophia Aleksandravicius (Tim Cowie photo)

Murray led all freshmen in the SoCon in scoring, made three-pointers (42), free-throw percentage and assists (71- second-best on the team). Seven different times this year she has dished out a season-best five assists in a game. Her 11.9 points per game average is second-best on the team behind Aleksandravicius. She is currently riding a five-game streak of scoring 10 or more points in a game, including netting a game-high 23 points in a win vs. Georgia Southern, Feb. 19.

On Jan. 19 at Appalachian State, the freshman guard went off for a season-best 27 points and set a single-game school-record when she canned all seven of her three-pointers for a perfect 1.000 percentage.

Aleksandravicius is just the third Wildcat to earn first-team honors on both the coaches and media teams in the same year. She joins Mercedes Robinson (2008, 2009) and Hamilton (2005). A 6-foot-4 forward, Aleksandravicius has been a force down low in the paint this season. She set the Wildcat single-game (7), single-season (91) and career (140) records in blocks, while also setting the single-season mark in made field goals (181) and free throws (111).

Named to the league’s coaches all-freshman team last year, Aleksandravicius has registered eight double-doubles this season, while scoring in double figures 25 times. She has reached the 20-point mark eight times and had a career-best 31-point outing in a win vs. Radford, Dec. 4. On the season, the sophomore is averaging 16.4 points and a even nine rebounds, ranking second and first, respectively, in the SoCon in each category.

The last eight games of the regular season saw her haul in 10-plus rebounds in seven of those games, including a career-high tying 16 vs. Georgia Southern. She also has picked up five of her eight double-doubles during that span.

CONFERENCE TOURNEY THIS WEEKEND

Davidson is seeded No. 8 in the SoCon Tournament, in Chattanooga, Tenn., against ninth-seeded College of Charleston on Thursday, Mar. 3. The game will start a half hour after the conclusion of the first game at 1 p.m.

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